MIA

It has definitely been way too long since my last post, but there has been so much going on over the past few months that I haven't had much time to post. Several events have also come and gone that I did not know how to articulate into blog posts (or if I was even going to) so here we are.

Here's a bit about what has been going on. Last week was my birthday. I am now one year away from 30, yay. Since this is my last year in my twenties, I decided to actually make (and keep) a New Year's Resolution this year. Which brings me to the next thing on The List: The New Year's Eve Resolution. Rather than being an actual "I will do ____" this year I decided to just focus on me. So, I've basically made a list, an ever growing list to be exact, of things that I've always wanted to do. The first thing on The List was actually marked off in 2011, the week before NYE. A group of us went ice skating and it was so fun! The next item on the list was boxing lessons, which I've been taking for a month. I absolutely love it! I don't think I'm going to be able to keep up with the lessons with work and all, but since I know the basics now I can box on my own with the bag several times a week after I run. I highly recommend boxing lessons if you like to workout and want to change things up and/or focus on or arms. It's fun and a great workout!

The List isn't in order of completion or anything, I just randomly add things when I think of them. At some point I may upload The List to the bloggity, but for now it's just for me. :)

One of the next items that I'll be crossing off, though, will probably be Painting With a Twist. It's a little art studio that allows you to bring your own alcoholic beverages and snacks while you paint the given picture of the evening for $45. I think it sounds fabulous, especially if you have a group of friends.

The next and probably most important thing that is going on. tomorrow. is. the. SUPER BOWL!
I'm so freaking pumped for this game. For those non football fanatics the New England Patriots are playing the New York Giants in Indianapolis. Which means, Tom Brady vs. Eli Manning. My Boys vs. The New York Football Giants. This is going to be an awesome game. If you haven't noticed from previous posts or that reference to "my boys", I'm going for the Pats. Wes Welker #83 is my boy. I could go into stats and all kinds of info about the team but I'm sure that would bore most of you. So, just know that you need to be cheering for the Patriots and especially for #83 and #87 Rob Gronkowski. I'll be heading to The Woodlands Sunday afternoon with Candy and the clan to watch the game at a friend's house. I made Chuy's dip today for the occasion. I love that stuff! It's literally like crack dip. The recipe is super simple, but I modified it somewhat so it's a bit spicier than Chuy's actual dip, and is a little more flavorful. Candy is taking some vodka soaked gummy bears that I'm very anxious to try haha!

Ok, it's definitely time for bed. I will try to be more diligent with the posts in the future.

Christmas Eve!

I can't believe Christmas Eve is already here! Seems like just yesterday we were talking about Thanksgiving, Halloween, or the semester starting... I mean really, where does the time go? Oh, right. I guess this means I'm getting old.

Well in the spirit of Christmas I thought I would share a couple things from my wish list, that I most likely will not receive...but can hopefully one day find their way into my possession!

I've wanted a KitchenAid mixer for a while now. I absolutely love this yellow color! I guess at some point I will have to bite the bullet and just buy myself one, but until then I will fantasize about receiving one as a gift or just a free one in general. ;)

This next item will most likely not make much sense to some of you, however it is near and dear to my heart. You're probably wondering why I do not already own this item. Well, it is with great sadness that I have to say I basically can't.

Wes Welker is my favorite NFL player and I would very much like to have his jersey. The problem is the men's sizes are super huge, and I'm most definitely not tucking in a jersey! I tried on a kid's and it fit perfectly, however Welker's jersey is only available in mesh form in the kids, not poly. DOH! So, you see my dilemma here?! I'm hoping that after this season more will be available... We shall see!

I'm about to go make some cinnamon rolls with mom for tomorrow morning and then watch some football and probably play some scrabble with the fam. Hope you're having a great Christmas Eve and a very Merry Christmas tomorrow!

Holiday Time :)

I just love the holidays! I mean really, twinkle lights, glitter everywhere, cheery Christmas music playing in every store, hot chocolate, beautiful Christmas trees everywhere you look, cozy nights watching old movies or reading a book... the list goes on and on and I mean really if you can't find just one single thing you don't like about the holidays, there has got to be something wrong with you.

So, in the spirit of the holidays, here are a few things I've done recently to get into (or spread) some Christmas cheer!

I made these little numbers to give out as treats for the peeps at work.

I don't really know what call them, I just saw a picture of them online and decided to make them. Super simple! Just take the waffle pretzels (small square ones) and spread them out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Then you just place a Hershey Kiss in the center of each pretzel and bake them for about 4-6 minutes at 170 degrees. As soon you remove them, press Christmas M&M's on top. You can let them stand for a while to cool or place the tray in the fridge for about 20 minutes and they'll firm up instantly. I packaged them in clear plastic party bags and tied them with Christmas ribbon and an ornament. I didn't take a picture of any, sorry. I thought they were pretty good, not near as great as the puppy chow I usually make, but good none the less.

That same weekend my mom and I made Christmas cookies! :)

Well, she makes the cookies and I do the decorating. This year I wanted to have more colors, so I played artist and mixed some food coloring up and made purple icing too, it turned out to be my fav! Making Christmas cookies is one of my favorite things to do every year, for those of you who aren't big bakers, you can always buy frozen sugar cookie dough or one of the mixes where you add water/eggs etc. I've used both methods before in college and we still had a blast and they tasted just fine ;)

My friend Candy had been a busy little elf these days making all kinds of garlands and wreaths for her house, friends, and coworkers! She surprised me with a wreath last week as a gift for my mom, it's super cute! She decorated it with ornaments, lights, and this beautiful material that reflects the lights. 

Last week I also made a gingerbread house. I LOVE making gingerbread houses! Usually there's a group of us making them together but this year I did mine on my own, I think it still turned out ok. It's just a kit from Target - I don't go too crazy and have to make my own gingerbread or anything that's insane! 

Thursday was our department Christmas party. This year instead of renting one of the buildings from campus, the party was held at one of our faculty member's houses. Rather than having a caterer, we did it potluck style and it turned out pretty well. I made pasta salad, which of course I forgot to take a picture of. It was pretty yummy and super easy to make! 

Ingredients:

1 box Rotini Pasta (I used plain, colored are fine too, bowtie also work great too)

1/4 lb deli pepperoni

1/4 lb deli hard salami

2 containers olives

shredded parmesan cheese

italian dressing

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried rosemary

3 tbsp EVOO

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 minced garlic cloves

The first thing I did was make a marinade for the olives. The olives I purchased came in a resealable container (not a jar) but a tupperware would work fine too. Drain the olives and then sprinkle them with the thyme, rosemary, black pepper, garlic, and EVOO. Seal the container and shake. Shake some more. And then when you think you're done, give it another shake just to make sure the olives are good and coated. Let the olives sit in the refrigerator for 1 hour or up to 5 days. I let mine sit over night and they tasted delish!  The next step is obvs to cook the pasta. Since this was for work and I didn't want to be running behind, I cooked my pasta the night before and did a light cover of Italian dressing (so the noodles didn't stick) and kept it in the fridge overnight. When you're ready assemble the entire pasta, cut the pepperoni and salami into strips and toss into the pasta with the olives and sprinkle with a handful of cheese. Using a large spoon, mix that baby up! Give it a taste, if you think it needs it, add more Italian dressing. I usually add a lot of extra dressing to mine, however since I marinated the olives this time I didn't want to over power their flavor, so I didn't add to much extra - that's all in your hands ;) The pasta salad was a big hit at the party, and it's so easy!

I also made these little appetizers for the party. I just used store bought toasties and pipped some herb cream cheese onto them and sprinkled bacon on top. The herb cream cheese is a secret recipe, sorry ;) But you can experiment with your own variations, the possibilities are endless!

Please excuse the "in the refrigerator" picture hehe ;)

Also, this weekend the Bearkats clinched their first ever FCS National Championship birth! I'm so proud of them! I went to the tailgate Friday and then came home to watch the game, it was just too cold for me, guess that means I'm getting old... I'm super pumped for the game January 7th! Get ready Candy, I'm already planning all kinds of stuff to make for our viewing party hahaha!

Giving Back.

It's already December?! Oh-Em-Geee!

Hopefully you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday, whether you were with family, friends, alone, or volunteering. My holiday time started the Saturday before Thanksgiving when I joined several friends and their church to deliver Thanksgiving box meals to families in need. It's really a great thing the church is doing! Donations are made in the weeks prior to that Saturday of non-parishable Thanksgiving meal items and frozen turkeys are kept as well. Everything is put into boxes based on the number of people in the family. Essentially, each family will receive a turkey, 1-2 bags of rolls (depending on the number of people in the family) and then canned veggies (ex: green beans, corn, cranberry sauce etc), a bag of potatoes, and 1-2 frozen pies (again depending on the number of family members). This year, the church had an excellent turnout in both donations of food and delivery drivers! It was great! I hope the church is able to keep this tradition alive and continue to increase the volume as well. :)

On Thanksgiving day, my sister and I made quite a bit of food and took it up to the station so the officers who were on duty could have Thanksgiving dinner too.  They really appreciated it, and I'm sure it was much better than the drive-thru or whatever they were planning on eating during their shift ;)

Let's try to remember to give back what we can this holiday season, even if it's in donations of time or goods! Hope your holiday season is off to a great start!!

one of my favorite things

Obviously, there are have been many great/important inventions throughout history, but let's be real, one of the most awesome of recent years has to be the digital video recorder. That's right, your DVR. After having one, I could never not have one again! It's so convenient! The only downside to the DVR is that I'm sure in the end it makes me watch more tv than before, but since the shows are recorded they're not watched all in the same week- so really I think the time thing balances itself out, right? 

Since it's Sunday and two of my fav shows are on tonight (along with one of my greatest loves, Sunday night Football- did I mention how much I love this DVR?!) I'm going to give you my top three series that are set to record on my DVR.

3. Dexter.

For those of you who live under a rock, Dexter is a serial killer who makes his home on Showtime. I rented the first three seasons and watched them over a boring summer weekend. That's right, I said WEEKEND. It's. That. Good. I purchased Showtime specifically for Dexter. He's an awesome guy! I know what you're thinking- serial killer? awesome? He only kills bad people. He works for Miami Metro PD with his sister Deb (who is also one of my other fav characters). This is definitely a show that gets better with age, season 6 just started a few weeks ago and I'm thinking this is the best one yet!

2. Sons of Anarchy. 

This. Show. Is. Ah-mazing. Kurt Sutter is a genius! I really don't see how he comes up with this stuff week in and week out. It's unreal. Sons of Anarchy is centered around a motorcycle club in California who do all kinds of stuff like run guns for the IRA, back a porn studio, help organize community picnics for children (where one of the members plays Elvis dress-up with the kids), and drug running with a cartel. Plus they have family drama with girls, kids and old club history. I know what you're thinking, this sounds ridiculous! And it is... Ridiculously awesome! Trust me on this one. I do not know one person I've told about this show who has come back with a negative reaction. Even my sister, who was against it for several years has jumped on the bandwagon! 

And finally, for #1 - it's really a tie between SONS and the following but since this next gem is much newer I decided to move it to the head of the pack for now to see how it plays out. Hopefully this wasn't a horrible move.

1. The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead premiered last year on Halloween, with a small season of about 7 episodes. I didn't initially watch it. I'm definitely not a zombie kind of girl. I enjoy some scary movies and vampires and such, but zombies have always scared the bejesus out of me. Seriously, I Am Legend gave me nightmares. But, I kept hearing good things about this show. My brother-in-law told me what sold him on in (something that happens in the first 10 mins of episode 1) and I decided to check it out. And by check it out, I mean wake up super early on a beautiful Sunday morning with the sun shining and birds chirping to watch episode one around 9am. It wasn't too bad, so I watched the next 3 episodes that were available on demand immediately after. I was hooked. Season 2 premiered a couple weeks ago and even though nothing major has happened yet, I'm digging it. I think they're building for something big! You'll be happy to know it's really not that scary. I watch it Sunday nights when it airs (unless it conflicts with one of my teams playing). Even though these zombies are definitely more disgusting than the ones from Will Smith's movie I don't find them scary or anything like that. There definitely a few times when I look away from fleshy grossness, but that's just because it's gross not scary haha! I think anyone could really handle this show and you should definitely check it out! Since the first season was so short, you could be caught up pretty quickly. I highly recommend trying this one out! :)

What do you record? What are your fav shows?

Homemade Pinwheels

Here's the recipe for the appetizer (if you want to call it that) that I made for Candy's Labor Day BBQ.

I decided to try something new, rather than just buy the yummy frozen pinwheels at the lovely Walmart. I found a recipe online for homemade pinwheels using Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and I modified it a little. I decided to make bacon, cheddar, and jalapeno pinwheels and then also went for plain cheddar and bacon ones too. So, I did half and half basically.

I bought 4 tubes (cans, whatever you want to call them) of the Pillsbury Creations Dough, rather than Crescent Rolls since the sheets aren't perforated. Each tube makes 8-12 pinwheels depending on how you slice them.

I chopped up 2 fresh jalapenos. Make sure they're seeded, or deseeded. I can never remember which way it is.

Take the seeds out. Yeah, that's it.

Fry up some bacon, I essentially used a whole package - but I was making extra so you could get by with less. For the cheese, I went with Sargento's Mild Cheddar annnnd I totally cheated and bought the already shredded kind.

Eh, it's faster, cleaner, and basically much easier.

So, you take one roll of the dough (if you're using multiple tubes, keep the others in the fridge until you're ready - it'll help keep the dough from sticking to your fingers or the counter) and lay it out on the counter, pushing the edges out to make sure it's a rectangle and not some sort of space man circle.

Sprinkle your cheese, jalapenos, and bacon. I added a little extra cheese on top - who doesn't like cheese?!

Roll up the dough, cinnamon roll style, and slice off the wheels. I cut mine at about 1 inch. That's a pretty good size for keeping the contents of the wheel from falling out while in transport to the baking sheet. It will also make biscuit size pinwheels.

Place them on a baking sheet you've sprayed down with Pam (or the cooking spray of your choice) and bake them at 350* for about 10-13 minutes depending on your oven and the pan you're using. Mine were done at 12.5 minutes flat.

After tasting the first batch, I realized the Pillsbury Creations dough didn't taste exactly the same as the Crescent Roll dough. It wasn't a buttery, flaky crust! So, I improvised and drizzled a teensy tiny bit of melted butter over the top of each one as they came out of the oven. This step is essential, as it makes them taste SO MUCH better and who doesn't love a little unhealthy butter added to their holiday weekend treat? ;)

In true fashion of my non picture taking self lately, I forgot to take some good pics of the pinwheel making process. I have two from George (my iphone). So yeah, don't judge the pics.

I thought they were pretty darn tasty! I also think they would be excellent with eggs for breakfast. Or with sausage and cheese rather than bacon. The possibilities are endless! If you try your own version, let me know what ingredients you use and how they turn out!

xoxo,
kris

Thank Goodness for 3 Day Weekends!

I just love long weekends, especially when they involve Monday. Not only do you get the awesomeness of having a 3 day weekend, but there's also the added bonus of a short work week until the next weekend! Hopefully you all took advantage of having the long weekend (so sorry for those who had to work Monday :/ ) and had some fun. 

I went to the football game Friday night with Candy to cheer on Caitlyn. We lost, but it was still fun - and the weather was great! The cool air/breeze was just blowing in that night so it was the perfect time to take in an outdoor game. 

On Saturday, Candy and I went to the 'land of the woods' - we were on the prowl for a good camera she could use to take action shots of Caitlyn cheering. After several hours at the mall and Best Buy, we decided it wasn't worth it... more research needed to be done. On the way home, we stopped at Chipotle in Conroe (LOVE this place!) Seriously, if you haven't tried Chipotle you are missing out!

Just typing those two sentences has me wanting to eat it for supper tonight!

Since we, well Candy, didn't purchase a camera, we started researching online and thought we had come up with a great camera choice; so we gave up the search and started watching the OU game with Candy's hubs - one of his former players is now a Sooner!

He's pretty good, and will probably end up in the NFL. I'm just saying, he's kind of a big deal.

Anyway.

So, on Sunday we were having a BBQ at Candy's house. She was supplying the brisket (and her mama brought ribs and sausage) so I brought an appetizer-ish item (recipe to follow in later post) and had my mama bake some snickerdoodles.

Because let's face it, her's Are. The. Best. I could literally eat the entire batch in one day.

Seriously.

We had a great time hanging out on the deck in the cool moderately warm air, eating great food, and having yummy drinks. We also watched the TAMU game that night. All in all an excellent Labor Day celebration. 

Monday it was actually even cooler, don't go too crazy it was just in high 80's- but considering the 5,000 degree weather we've had for months now, it was nice and refreshing. I met Heather and some peeps at the park near the city pool and attempted frisbee golf for the first time in my life. It was actually pretty fun! 

I was skeptical as to how much fun it would really be since I hadn't thrown a frisbee in say, 20 years. I also didn't realize how similar to golf it actually is! But since I love golf, it made it more enjoyable. I'm going to pick up a couple frisbees (special ones are required, not just the kind we tossed around when we were 5) at Academy this weekend. I've been told they're about $6-8 each and with the local course being free, I consider that a good investment. I love cheap, outdoor hobbies! :)

We didn't get to finish the entire course as it was fairly windy and for reasons beyond my understanding the City built the course with a rather large gully running beside several holes. The wind made it quite difficult to keep the frisbee away from the treacherous abyss. But, like I said it was pretty fun and I will definitely be buying a couple frisbees and playing more often.

Hope you had an excellent holiday weekend and were able to get out and do something fun!

xoxo,

kris